Dawn of Valor: Lightning's Horizon
by Hunter Dracon
Summary: A feisty lone wolf Hunter of the Guardians of the City who's determined to remember her past. A green armored super-soldier from long ago with an AI that remembers the Hunter, plus an elite force determined to wipe out the remnants of Humanity, taking away the Traveler's Light and stripping the Guardians or their power. It's the Dawn of Valor my friends, you don't want to miss it.
1. Chapter 1

**_Chapter One: The End of an Era_**

 **A/N: Welcome one, welcome all to this fun little shindig that we like to call a story! We're featuring a totally new character that is the sole property of the one and only Hunter Dracon. (Hunter Dracon: That would be me boyo) This is something that we thought would be a bit of fun and evidently, we had too much because we cranked this out in what was it Hunter, a couple days? (Hunter Dracon: Aye) yeah it was ridiculous. That being said, don't expect updates in quick succession, as in every couple days. (Hunter Dracon: Although I might just do that anyway...) Yeah yeah it depends in your mood. We'll be trying to crank them out every couple to few weeks officially but don't be surprised if one comes out in only a few days. (Hunter Dracon: Speaking of our shit. This Author's Note is written by both myself and Arisentactica.)**

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Location: In orbit of Earth, bridge of Spartan-class Super-battlecruiser/Carrier UNSC Reclaimer's Will

Third Person POV:

Spartan Commander Master Chief John-117 was standing at the bridge of his ship, Reclaimer's Will, deep in thought when an Ensign came up to him and saluted. Chief turned his head to look at the Ensign and nodded his head. A peculiar thing that Chief saw about the Ensign was she was in a pilot's flight suit. When has a pilot delivered messages? Chief thought to himself as he nodded. The Ensign came out of her salute and clasped her hand behind her back, one holding a datapad.

"Master Chief sir, I have a message for you from HIGHCOM." the Ensign stated.

Chief nodded and put his hand out for the pad. The Ensign gave it to him and was dismissed by a flick of his hand back to her station. As he read the message he thought back to how he was nearly forced to take the promotion to Commander of the remaining Spartan IIs and IIIs after he came back through his multi-dimensional "adventure". He wasn't happy about it, preferring to have his boots on the ground to being stuck on a ship most of the time. But apparently Lord Hood was adamant and serious about his promotion on the 'Librarian's Archives'. He was even more annoyed when they gave him a ship of the new Spartan-class of ship, a class that would only have one ship active at a time. It was 4.3km long, around 300 meters bigger than a Punic-class supercarrier, 857 meters in height, and 468.2 meters wide. It was made to be the main base of operations for the Spartan Corps and then some. It was heavily armoured with 4 meters of the new Titanium-A3-H4 armour which combined UNSC Titanium-A3 with a basic Forerunner battleplate that was found on Requiem after searching all of the vaults. Supplementing the armor was a new prototype shield generator that can take 2 heavy MAC rounds and 3 MAC rounds before failing. It had 3 Heavy MAC guns that were just below the Super MAC classification, 200 M42 Archer missile pods (24 missiles per pod), 100 M75 Rapier missile pods (30 missiles per pod), 250 M96 Howler missile pods (20 missiles per pod), 581 M965 Fortress 70mm guns, 6 dorsal MAC cannons, 56 dorsal M85 Anti-Aircraft (Point-defense for fighters and bombers) Gun Networks, 114 M97 Guided Missile Weapon System Networks, and 6 HAVOK nuclear missiles. It was meant to be an "escort" to the UNSC Infinity but Lord Hood and HIGHCOM ordered that it would be used as the main Spartan Corps headquarters. He wished that he still had the Dawn's Light but knew that it couldn't be rebuilt and ONI get their hands on it, it was too much to risk for him, Blue team and Hood agreed with him on at least that when it came to their mission and subsequent long way round the multiverse, but at least they were in their home dimension. He just hoped that he wouldn't have to fight a galactic threat again for at least a decade, if not more. His enhancements that he received from the Librarian were still there, he was still taller than the other Spartans, including Blue team, by a large margin. Nearly 6 inches on the IIs and IIIs, the IVs well… that was a whole other story.

The one thing that they added as a reward for his service besides the promotion and ship, that Chief didn't want, was a new "upgraded" version of Cortana. She wasn't what the old Cortana was in terms of capabilities, to which she pouted about for nearly a whole day, that was unheard of for an AI, and asked if she could get the same upgrades that her predecessor did. Chief immediately shot that down, as he knew what knowledge she could gain from it, knowledge that nearly drove the original Cortana into a relapse of the Logic Plague.

She called herself Cortana 1.5 when she was with the Chief and asked him to call her 1.5 so that she wouldn't replace her predecessor, which she was adamant about not doing. She had the files and "memories" of the original Cortana from when she interfaced with Infinity during the First Battle of Requiem and got everything that she missed from the Chief's armour records. She looked different from the original as well. She actually wore something akin to Forerunner or Promethean armour and her hair was a tomboyish haircut with a side of her head shaved and the rest of her hair around 6 centimeters. When compared to her predecessor's jawline haircut, another thing that she didn't want to copy, it was quite different. She changed her color from a purple blue to more of a navy blue with blood red coding running down her avatar. Her eyes were split blue and red almost down the middle of her eyes.

When Chief brought it up with her, she said, "I won't be a carbon copy of Cortana 1.0 Chief, so I made myself different. In regards to my hair, I wanted to be different and a bit more rebellious this time around."

Chief understood her opinion but asked Halsey, who built her with permission from ONI, why she was a bit more rebellious and was more, shall we say, open with how she did things. Halsey explained that this version saw the mistakes in her predecessor and asked to be changed so that she wouldn't replace her. Halsey made the changes and was happy with them and told Chief to give the new Cortana a somewhat fresh start for being his AI partner.

When he lost her to those he was fighting right before they were about to come home, something inside him snapped. He killed every remaining hostile there with speed, strength, and efficiency, that he didn't know he had. When he calmed down, he was horrified that it had happened, how deeply Cortana meant to him.

After talking with his Spartan siblings, he swore that he would never let himself snap like that again, unless it was in the most dire of circumstances, the worst of the worst when it came to odds of survival. Cortana… well Cortana was his partner through everything that had happened, from the Halos and the Ark to going 'dimension hopping' as she called it.

Chief cleared his head and focused on the pad in front of him. It had a message on the screen that would change everything.

'Spartan Commander Master Chief Sierra-117

It pains us to inform you of Fleet Admiral Lord Terrence Hood's passing. He died in his sleep peacefully with no poison in his body, as evidenced by the autopsy done at 1739 hours the day before this message, on June 18, 2561. His will is scheduled to be revealed on 1300 hours June 20, 2561 and in his last wish, he asked that you be there for the reading of his will.

Keep up the fight Spartan,

Fleet Admiral Joseph Harper

Chief was surprised that Hood died. Hood had nearly flat out said that he wouldn't die so long as the UNSC needed him. He guessed that the stress of being the CINCUNSC caught up to him.

Needing to tell his team the news, Chief announced, "Keep us here in geosynchronous orbit. I will return soon."

He then turned on his heel and walked off the bridge to the Spartan II training area.

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Location: Sydney, Australia, Earth

Chief was in the back of the church with his arms at his sides. He kept his armor on in case there was an emergency. The will of Lord Hood was being read and he was listening intently. It was surprising how extensive the will was, but then again Lord Hood was nothing if not thorough. If Chief heard the man who was reading the will correctly, it was about 20 pages long. As a Spartan, Chief was always on guard, especially against undercover Insurgents, but this situation was something that he wasn't usually involved in. He was here to respect the final wishes of Lord Hood.

As if someone read his mind, Cortana showed up on his HUD.

"Bored old man?" she asked playfully.

"Not entirely, I'd prefer to get back to the Will and train the new IVs that came from Reach." Chief said. He scowled when the words 'old man' registered. "Just because you are less than a year old doesn't mean that you can call me old." Chief scolded her as if she was a child.

"Fine, I won't call you old man… dad." Cortana retorted.

Chief nearly jumped in surprise to Cortana calling him 'dad'. As far as he knew, he wasn't her father and none of his brain tissue was used in her creation.

"Why did you call me that?" Chief asked, curiosity overriding everything else at that point.

Cortana's expression morphed from playful to curious in response.

"Didn't Halsey tell you? She used some of your genetic material to clone a brain of yours and integrated that into me chip. I'm technically you daughter but I don't really call you 'father' because I have Cortana 1.0's memories. That's why I called you 'dad' Chief." Cortana revealed by way of explaining, but only managing to confuse the veteran Spartan further.

Chief sank into himself to figure out how Halsey used some of his genetic material to help recreate Cortana.

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He was brought out of his thoughts by Cortana who told him that the will was read and they were good to go back to the Will. He immediately made his way there to try to contact Halsey so that she could explain why she did what she did and how.

When he got to his ship, Commander Palmer greeted him in the Hangar. She had a solemn expression on her face.

"Is there something wrong Commander?" Chief asked.

Palmer nodded her head and motioned him to follow her. Chief's longer stride was able to catch up to hers almost instantly. When they were in the lift, she pushed the button for the bridge.

"In accordance with Lord Hood's will, you are to be put into cryo at a new Forerunner base that was found in an asteroid in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter by a new type of scan specifically designed to find any previously unknown Forerunner bases. You will be joined by Cortana, who will go into shutdown to stay online, and all of the Spartan IIs and IIIs, until you are needed again. You will be taking the Will with you and you will have no outside contact until you are needed. We are on our way to the base now." She then turned and saluted. "It's been an honor Master Chief."

Chief returned her salute but remained silent, opting to nod his head in response and respect.

The door to the lift opened to a somber bridge crew looking sadly at Chief.

"Maintain heading for the base and transfer the controls to Cortana." Chief ordered. He then opened a channel ship wide, "All personnel that are not Spartans are to stay back at Earth for the fleet to pick up. Keep the UNSC and her allies safe in our absence. Sierra-117 out."

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The cryobay that the Spartans were going to be inhabiting were exactly what a soldier would want: for it to be spartan in appearance, which meant no luxury or the room being spacious. It was about the same size as a cryobay on a UNSC frigate, which was perfect for the Spartans. Chief was getting the Spartans in their pods before he got in one himself. Cortana was nervous about being of-line that long, but was assured by Chief that she would be brought online right after he was awakened. The total number of Spartans was around 25, not a large number, but big enough to take a large swathe of land, if not a planet, if need be. The Spartans were still storing their gear in gear lockers beside the pod that they had chosen. Soon it would be time for the Spartans of the Human-Covenant War to rest.

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After every Spartan was in their pod, Chief stowed his gear and got in his. But before he did, he turned to Cortana and said, "Wake me when you need me."

Cortana smiled sadly in response before saying, "I'll see you soon dad."

Chief got into his pod shaking his head. He shifted himself into the most comfortable position that he could get in with the pod, then signalled for Cortana to shut it and activate it.

Cortana complied and watched as her Spartan vanished from view due to a sheet of ice from the pods activation. She then put protocols in place should someone find the base and activated them. When she was done she activated her shutdown sequence and drifted into a sleeplike state before shutting down completely.

Little did they know how much things had changed when they woke up.

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Location: Venus, inner Solar System

Huntress POV:

I lay on the edge of a cliff , my Long Shadow sniper rifle in my hands, the bipod lowered, and inhaled a breath as I leveled the crosshairs of the scope onto the head of a Fallen Captain and exhaled as I pulled the trigger. Having made the adjustments to my scope for the distance, windspeed, wind direction, and my elevation minutes before, my shot was spot on as it fell right on the point where I'd aimed. Right between the Fallen Captain's eyes. The other Fallen in the patrol jumped when their captain's helmet popped open like a grape and hissed air out as the pressurized air escaped and the body dropped to the ground as blood splattered the ground and the closest Vandal along with their immediate surroundings. I leveled the crosshairs on the vandal and fired again, gaining the same result. I wiped out the rest of the patrol with similar efficiency before they could find cover.

I smirked and set the stock of my rifle on to the ground before I placed my gloved hands on the ground and pushed myself into a crouch as I brought my legs under me. I then grabbed my rifle and stood up, standing near the edge of the cliffside. I pulled my hood back up over my hair. The hood quickly cast a shadow over my face as I turned away from the cliff and walked to where my Sparrow waited. I slung the rifle over my shoulder and across my back where it rested against my Hazard of the Cast Auto Rifle. I thought about my past missions and the attitude the other guardians sent my way for a moment as I slid my hand across the sleek frame of my sparrow. Amanda Holliday and I were good friends, and I liked Cayde well enough, and we were still great friends, even though his smart aleck statements and comments sometimes annoyed me enough to punch the little joker in the face (my fist usually hurts for a couple hours when I do that), especially when they get a little inappropriate, and Ikora and I share a laugh every once in a while at Cayde's expense. I tended to ignore Zavala unless he needs me for something, and all the other guardians are friendly enough, but I usually keep my distance, partially because I have yet to find myself a name. Hell, I hadn't even named my Ghost yet, and he was starting to get a little miffed, since all the other guardians had named their ghosts as well, considering that I've done more stuff for the Vanguard and the Last City than any of them.

The other reason why I kept my distance from the other Guardians was because I was what people call a "Lone Wolf". For me that meant no fireteams, no temporary partners (for the most part), and only one permanent companion, sort of. I did everything on my own. All the other Guardians are in fireteams, groups and whatnot. The only group in which I could have been considered a "full-timer" would be the Iron Lords, but even then that was only three of us, one of which is sworn off violence (which I don't understand at all), and the other, who's getting a bit too old to go running around on missions, but does so on occasion when the situation calls for it.

As for me, I'm generally the one who does most of the fighting, and I tend to do it pretty well. I'm a wild-card by just about everyone's standards. I have no routine, indicating movement, or predictable pattern in just about everything I do, and it's another part of the reason why I'm never part of any sort of team. My teammates getting harmed is an occupational hazard, and all the other guardians are warned to stand clear whenever I'm operating in the area.

I sighed and mounted my sparrow, hearing my armor brush against the sparrow's leather seat. I gripped the throttle as I started it up and then eased forward on it, causing the sparrow to drift forward before I hit the boost and shot forward as I moved to a safer area so my ship could pick me up.

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The Huntress' Ghost was doing maintenance on their ship when it got the call to come pick her up. He was in orbit, but that wouldn't be an issue with the speed of the jumpship that they were able to get their hands on after the SIVA crisis.

It looked like her original one from Dock 13 of the Cosmodrome in Old Russia, but had been, as she called it, "SIVAfied". Why she called it that, Ghost didn't know. The only reason that Ghost went along with it was because it couldn't come up with something better to call the condition of the ship. Instead of the usual blue, orange, gray, and white the ship was black and red with a glowing light red, almost pink, light coming off of some edges of the ship. Overall, it was the best ship that they could have asked for or found. It was state of the art, Amanda cleared it for that one, and it made Cayde jealous so for the Huntress it was a win-win.

After a couple minutes, the ship was hovering over where the Huntress had asked it to go, but there was no sign of the Huntress or her sparrow. Just then the Huntress came over a distant hill with several Fallen pikes on her tail that were shooting at her. As soon as she saw she was in sight she jumped off her Sparrow while drawing her Ace of Spades hand cannon, of which there was only one other hand cannon in the system that was like it, Cayde's personal hand cannon, spun around in mid air, and fanned the hammer as she swept the weapon's line of fire over the riders, bullseyeing each of them in an impressive display of marksmanship before holstering it and dropping back onto her sparrow. A few of the pikes crashed into each other in brilliant blue and orange explosions from the arc energy and fuel ignited as their riders fell limp from their seats and the others ran into rocks and terrain and tumbled end over end before exploding themselves. She banked right and slammed on the brakes, drifting the sparrow to a stop, facing the burning wrecks.

"Talk about cutting it close." She muttered before calling to the ghost, "Bring me up!"

Then she vanished into light particles as she was transported back up to the ship.

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I unslung my rifles from their spots across by back and set them on the bed I'd set up in the ship's cabin and then climbed into the pilot seat before taking off my helmet and tossing it on the dashboard. I then settled into the seat and set my hands on the controls as my ghost floated to my side.

"Back to the City?" he asked, and I only nodded in response before we made the jump back to Earth.

Some time passed as we flew in from our jump and my ghost kept trying to contact the Tower, to no avail. As we approached the mountain range that separated the Last City and it's walls from the rest of the world, we could see lightning rumbling in the storm clouds above. At that point my ghost tried again.

"Repeat, Tower Approach, this is City Hawk seven-two-three. Anyone home?" then he turned to me. "No response on any channels, even the emergency frequencies." My ghost sighed as he turned back to look out the cockpit. "What is going on back there?" he asked himself before he paused and then turned to me. "Remember when I told you that you fly too fast?" he asked.

I looked at him with my right eyebrow raised.

"Forget I said that. Fly fast."

I smirked and powered up my ships upgraded weapons systems before I shoved the throttle forward, causing the ship to accelerate as the afterburners I'd added onto the ship kicked in and sent me back into the pilot seat and my ghost to let out a yelp of surprise before he was thrown back into the ship's cabin. I directed the ship to the storm clouds and flew directly through them. We shot out of the clouds seconds later revealing the Last City under a full scale assault.

"It's an invasion!" the ghost exclaimed, and I frowned before I locked my jaw in a determined line and primed the weapons systems for a fight.

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My first kill was a Cabal Dropship trying to bring a fresh squad of Cabal soldiers into the Tower. I'd been flying past it when I'd realised the ship was an enemy and had jerked the stick to the side and banked hard onto its tail before ripping it apart with a well placed burst of my guns. I felt a surge of something, not just satisfaction, but an energy, eagerness, and a feeling of air-to-air combat that just feels natural. I got this sort of gut feeling and I rolled into a dive before pulling back on the stick and bringing the throttle all the way back, stalling my ship as I looked through the top of the cockpit and saw something dart past, trying to slow down in order to catch me. I shoved the throttle forward again as I yanked the stick to the right, rolling the craft before I pulled back and shredded the Cabal fighter that had shot past past me. I looped around the Tower like a circling bird of prey as I watched several Cabal dropships approach for an attack on the plaza. I turned into them and unleashed a cloud of missiles as I charged right through their formation, six of them were blown apart by my missiles before my guns cut into their ranks, sending three tumbling in brilliant fireballs into the sides of the Tower before I whipped my ship around and launched a second volley of missiles that tracked the last four and then sent them into the base of the Tower in pieces. I saw Zavala wave at me from the main platform of the plaza and then hit the throttle when I tracked five fighters that were making a beeline toward me with my sensors. I just grinned as I flew right past their formation and gunned the afterburners as I whipped the ship around. I heard my ghost wail as he got thrown all over the cabin as I made the maneuver and dug my claws into their formation, ripping one of the fighters in half, blowing a second to burning slag, and then disintegrated the third as he tried to perform a high-g turn in an attempt to catch me off guard, in which I purposefully pulled the throttle back, stalled my ship, and flipped it end over end and spat the last of my ammo into the hull of the doomed fighter. Then I hit the throttle again before my fighter could fall into the city and made a beeline for the hangar.

Any Cabal soldiers I fought after entering the hangar were child's play to my experience from fighting them on Mars. They surprised me with some new weapons like the arc multi-barrel mortar and their new attack animals that they called War Beasts, but soon I was taking them out with ease along with any other Cabal that I came across. What was funny was that with large groups, I would slide among them on my knees and nail them with my Ace of Spades before jumping up and kicking the few that would be left away before embedding throwing knives in their faces. As I approached the plaza, I holstered my hand cannon and unslung my Long Shadow sniper rifle and walked calmly into the the plaza. I brought my rifle up to bear and sighted in the Cabal before I began putting rounds through their skulls. My reflexes were faster than any of the Cabal, and even when a Cabal soldier came up behind me, I didn't hesitate to jump upward with a backflip and land on its shoulders before jabbing the muzzle of my rifle into the back of it's head and pulled the trigger, splattering my armor with it's blood and then diving off the falling body and rolling on impact with the ground before reloading as I came up. I slammed the rifle's bolt home and then trained my next shot on a Cabal deployment container and fired on a specific spot, causing the container to collapse and send its contents crashing to the ground with a gruesome crunch as the the first missile volley came in. I didn't even bother going inside Zavala's shield as I dropped my rifle and took out Ace of Spades before I fanned the hammer and blew half of the incoming missiles out of the air. I reloaded and then holstered it again as I grabbed my rifle and dove out of the blast radius. I listened to Ikora and Zavala's quick conversation before he gave me the order to go with Ikora to find the Speaker. "Shut up Zavala, I know what I have to do." I retorted as I sprinted across the plaza to the entrance to the corridor for the Speaker's office. I didn't make it far before Ikora levitated onto an open part of the corridor and told me that the Speaker was gone before a Cabal dropship showed up. I brought my rifle up in a flash and spat a round right through the canopy and into the cockpit and through the pilot's head before Ikora jumped up and blew apart one of it's engines with a Nova bomb. I left her to finish off the dropship before continuing on. At this point I didn't care what Zavala was telling me. These guys had attacked my home. I sure as hell wasn't gonna let that fly. I queued my comms and switched over to Holliday's frequency.

"Amanda!" I called.

"Yeah?" Came the reply.

"I need a ride. Can you get me onto that command ship and then get my ship somewhere safe? I don't want it getting blown to hell in all this chaos."

"Sure. But I got a question for ya. Was that you who wrecked those dropships and fighters over the Tower?"

I paused. "Yeah, that was me." I replied hesitantly.

"Hoowee! Girl you've got some talent! I'll be right there. That hotshot flying of yours lifted some of the pressure off us as we were launching!"

"I copy, make it fast. I've got a score to settle with whoever's leading this, and I doubt Cayde's managed to get very far." I said as some Cabal dropped onto my position. "I'll see you soon!" I shouted before I cut my coms and charged. As soon as i was close enough, I jumped over the lead Cabal and holstered my rifle before unsheathing my knife as I landed on the next Cabal. I then drove the knife through its skull as one of the Cabal tried to shoot me before I jumped off, removing my knife in the process. The Cabal's shot went right through it's comrades torso armor as I unslung my Hazard of the Cast Auto Rifle and landed several meters away. "Come get some you fucking turtles!" I shouted before I opened fire. The rounds that spat from my rifle cut them down before they could even aim their weapons. I lowered my rifle as their bodies fell and ejected the empty magazine and slammed a fresh one home. I holstered the rifle as the lights from Holliday's ship swept over me.

"You called?" She asked over the ship's external speakers.

I only nodded as I boarded the ship. "Let's go." I stated as I walked through the cabin and made sure I had enough ammo.

◊∏Œ∆Œ∏◊

"Hit em where it hurts!" Holliday called as I jumped down onto the command ship's platform.

"You know I will." I stated menacingly as I unholstered my Ace of Spades and charged up the platform. The resistance I met was only marginally more difficult compared to the soldiers I had fought back in the Tower. For the most part I had no trouble, although there were several Cabal that seemed like some sort of officer class that had better weapons than the others. I dealt with them quickly enough. I was livid. Nobody attacks my home planet and lives to get away with it. Technically the Fallen are just trying to live on Earth, and I can deal with them easily enough considering they're barely organized as it is. But the Cabal are a military race, which means they have better gear, better discipline, and better training than any of the other alien races aside from the Awoken remnants. You do not piss them off. Period. Either way, after destroying the turbines for the skip's shield generator, I holstered my hand cannon and drew my auto rifle, something was telling me that doing so would give me a better chance against whatever I'd be facing. I headed for the nearest airlock leading to the top on the command ship and took cover on one side of the door. I waved my hand in front of it to open it, and then peeked around the corner. Seeing that it was clear, I dive-rolled outside and onto the platform beyond. The first thing I noticed when I looked up was the massive machine on the Traveler.

"I don't know what the hell that machine is, but it sure as hell isn't for anything good." I growled.

"Do you think we'll be able to recover from an invasion like this?" My ghost asked.

I heard heavy footsteps behind me. "You don't." Stated a deep voice. I spun around and aimed my rifle at the massive Cabal in white armor. The cabal glared down at me before he gestured toward the Traveler. "Welcome, to a world without Light." he stated as I looked back at the traveler out of the corner of my eye, just as a orange wave of energy swept across the Traveler's surface. Then I felt something leave me and I felt weak.

"Guardian, Something's wrong…" My ghost stated before trailing off and falling to the platform.

My eyes widened and I turned back to the white armored cabal before I felt any weaker and pulled the trigger. "I don't need the light to kick your ass!" I shouted as I emptied the rifle's entire magazine into the Cabal's armor and shields. While his shields flared and I scratched his armor, I didn't do much else, and I'd been too weak to aim for his face. Now I had no real strength left, and collapsed to my knees, peering at him with drooping eyes as he approached me.

"Do not look at me, creature." he spat with venom.

He then punched me across the platform. Let me tell you, it hurt. A lot.

"You have spirit… I'll give you that. But your race is weak, undisciplined, and unworthy for the gift that has been given to you."

I gingerly tried to scramble to my feet, holding my side as I did, and rubbed my chin. I managed to get to my knees, the pain having woken up some sort of primal rage within me.

"I'll show you what Humans can do." I growled as I ripped off my helmet and mask.

My eyes burned, and the Cabal's guard's stepped back a pace or two, then shook their heads and returned to their former positions. I just grinned cruelly and finally got to my feet, though I was still hunched over, and stepped toward the Cabal. "You attacked my home world." Another step. "You killed my friends." a third. "You destroyed our city, my home." a fourth step. "And you insulted my species." I was a step away from him now, looking up into his eyes with rage burning in mine. "I will kill you. Either here or some time in the future. And you can do nothing but watch as your world will come crumbling down around you." I swore with a smirk at the look on his face, one of outrage and surprise.

Having heard enough, he kicked me, sending me skidding to the edge of the hull, but not falling over the edge. "Foolish creature, thinking that you can stop me. I am Ghaul, and I am your kind's end!"

I coughed up blood. I could feel my ribs broken from his kick. "See, that's where you're wrong. We will never give up, never give in. That is who we are Ghaul, not some animal that got lucky. We survive. We will fight to the end and you will fail in your moment of triumph." With that, I looked right at him and waited for his response. He walked towards me slowly, seeming to consider his options. He then stopped right where I was right as I was able to sit up, but the pain from my ribs caused me to gasp from the pain. I drew one of my throwing knives and threw it at his face, but with my ribs broken, the action caused me to seize up from the agony of that one movement. Instead of hitting his head like I wanted to, it imbedded itself slightly in his chest armor. Gaul looked at it, then at me with rage filled eyes. He put his foot on my chest and pushed me off the edge of the ship. The last thing that I feel is the wind in my face and the growing agony due to the effects of the adrenaline fading away before losing my grip on consciousness.

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 **A/N: That's it folks. That's chapter one of Hunter's Return! Hope you guys liked it! Please drop a review to let us know and be on the lookout for stray chapters from the Lone Wolf of a co-author. (Hunter Dracon: You said we'd be dropping that shit.) I can't control what you do and that's why I said that.**

 **See you in the next one folks!**

 **This is Arisentactica and Hunter Dracon over and out.**


	2. Chapter 2

_**Chapter Two: A New Beginning**_

 **A/N: Welcome back to Chapter 2 of Dawn of Valor: Lightning's Dawn! Will the Huntress survive? Read to find out!**

 _I stumbled along, holding my right side as blood dripped from my left hand and limping from the piece of mangled and torn steel that was embedded in my left thigh. My crash had not been pleasant. I felt as if I'd been eaten alive, then mangled and clawed up, then spit back out to crawl away in terror from the very beast that had inflicted this pain. I fingered the safety on my sidearm, which was a classic keepsake from someone I knew. Looking at it now, I could tell exactly the gun it was. A 1911 longslide with galloping wolves and lightning bolts engraved in the sides of the slide. Just by the engraving and the quality of the wood that was also engraved for the grip, I could tell how valuable the damn thing was. Then I heard the whine of something charging up before there was the sound like a tree trunk snapping and I felt a pain in my chest. I didn't hesitate. If that pain meant what I thought it did, there'd be no living on. I whipped around and emptied the entire fourteen round magazine into what I had barely caught a glimpse of before I twisted too far and fell with a cry of pain from both my leg and my side. As I lay on the ground, I felt something pooling under me, soaking my flight suit. I barely caught a glimpse of the dark red pool's edge coming toward my face before everything faded to black._

 _Location: The Last City - Two days after the attack._

 _Huntress' POV:_

I groaned in pain as I opened my eyes and moved my arms forward to push myself up. When my arms flailed weakly, I knew I wouldn't be getting up that way anytime soon. So I tried rolling over onto my back, but I had barely started the motion before I felt a tugging sensation in my right side, then… pain. Blistering excruciating pain so white hot that I was blinded and couldn't even scream. I could only whimper. Something had gone clear through my side, and whatever it was, I was lucky I haven't bled out yet. I used my right arm to reach down and find whatever was in me. It was sharp. That was the first thing I noticed when my hand clamped down on it, slicing through my glove. I didn't remove my hand like you would've expected, but I adjusted my grip so that most the pressure wasn't on the edges of whatever sort of blade was embedded in my side. However, then I realised that the blade wasn't flat like a sword or a knife, but triangular. I looked down at my side and found a shard of metal sticking through my sternum, meaning that I landed in a pile of debris from the attack. I shifted my feet to be able to kneel. Even the slightest movement caused pain like acid to burn through my body. I felt my blood pool under me and knew that I had to get up and try to find my Ghost or I would die there. I brace my elbows on the ground beside me and start to push up off the debris. I felt whatever had speared me start to slide out. _That's not good_ , I thought, _I need that to stay where it is so that I don't bleed out. People who get hurt like this and pull out whatever went into them first thing are idiots. You just bleed out faster that way._ I chastised myself as soon as I thought of pulling out the shard. I started moving my hand under me to see if I could fit my knife under myself. As soon as I could fit it under my body, I grabbed my knife that was still on my hip, thankfully, and started to try and cut it so that I could move. After about 20 minutes of cutting, I managed to cut through the object. I then slowly, gingerly moved to get off my back, again causing severe pain as the flesh around the object shifted around the object as I stood up. I almost immediately hunched over due to the state that my body was in. I could feel that my right arm was broken, as were some ribs on both sides of my diaphram, more than I had when I fell. My head was pounding, whether from the collective pain of my injuries or from maybe splitting my skull, I didn't know, probably both. I slowly limped down the street that I was on, looking for my Ghost and scanning my environment for any Cabal.

◊∏Œ∆Œ∏◊

About half an hour later, I was starting to feel faint, my wounds sapping my strength. Just when I was about to collapse to the ground in a heap I heard a voice.

"Guardian? Oh thank the Traveler I found you!" my Ghost said as he floated towards me as fast as he could. He stopped about 2 feet in from of me and scanned me.

Not being able to stand anymore, but feeling much better now that I found my Ghost, I fell to my knees panting and clutching my side with my non broken arm.

"About time you showed up. I was about to hit the bricks a second ago." I said, prompting a near pout to show up on my Ghost's eye. "You okay?" I asked, visibly concerned.

"Besides a lack of Light, I'm good." My Ghost replied, "I'm more worried about you and your new addition to your stomach."

"I'll live. Would like some help with this thing though." I said, pointing to my new addition.

"I have just enough Light to heal you fully, but no shields."

"What are we waiting for? Let's get this thing out of me and get out of here. We need to hit some caches that we hid for cases like this." I said impatiently. You see, I never really trusted the vaults in the Tower to hold all of my stuff so I made caches that only I could get into. Well… me and the old Iron Lords. I have duplicates of everything I had in the vaults, due to the fact that I never left any one of a kind gear in the vaults.

"Alright then, let's get this show on the road." My Ghost said, breaking me out of my thoughts. "I'll need you to take out the shard in your stomach."

I nodded and started to gingerly pull the shard out of me. I could feel the blood starting to gush out of the hole that I was making and looked at my Ghost with a pleading/pain filled expression.

Ghost bobbed up and down in a nod and started to heal my other wounds, while I finished pulling the fragment out of my body.

When I pulled it completely out, my Ghost healed the hole and the blood flow and pain stopped. I stretched and sighed in relief. "Well, let's go kick some ass!" I exclaimed, causing an echo to bounce off the walls of the buildings that were around us.

"Shhh!" my Ghost snapped, "We are in no condition to fight right now. We don't have the Light and we don't have a way to get off planet right now!"

I just smirked. "You do know that I rarely use my light abilities. Remember? I only use the damn gunslinger's golden hand cannon when i'm facing a specifically tough enemy.

"It also means that we can't heal, not fully anymore at least. I used up quite a bit of my remaining Light reserves and you have almost none from not using your abilities very much."

"I didn't use them as often as everyone else because I never really needed them!" I argued

"Mmm hmm. What about against Crota hmm? You had to use the Light to just survive down there. What about Oryx? SIVA? You used the Light just to keep yourself going and you didn't even realize it." my Ghost retorted.

"That's passive stuff, I don't consciously use it very often." I shot back.

"Yes but it still drains what little reserves you have and right now, after that battle and using the Light to keep you going, you're out of luck. We don't have the ability to take anyone on right now. Even your armor and guns are broken! You only have that sidearm that we came here with as a backup!" my Ghost pointed out.

I sighed, realizing that I wouldn't get out of "daddy Ghost's" complaining until we got out of the City and to one of our caches.

"Alright we'll do it your way. No big and dangerous stunts." I relented, "At least ones that won't kill me." I muttered under my breath.

"Also, their not as broken as you might think, I only lost my auto rifle, nothing else, and my sniper rifle is just scratched. I've still got _Ace of Spades_ in near perfect condition, although it's covered in blood at the moment." I explained.

My Ghost nodded and vanished into my palm. _I really wish I knew how he did that_. I thought to myself. _It'd be very handy in a lot of situations._

I shrugged then. "Let's head for the wilderness. Hopefully I can kill some deer or something for food. I can shoot just fine. That's a skill I know I had before you revived me. Besides, Saladin has wolves, and I think we'll be able to find him somewhere in the Twilight Gap if we're lucky. You know how he likes to wander."

"Yeah I know. I was the one who told you remember?" my Ghost said playfully. "We could probably find him near the Twilight Gap complex. It was a contingency that he told me about should the City fall. I know that Shaxx might be there, but I don't know about anyone else."

"I don't expect many other Guardians to have survived after the Light was taken from us. You and I got lucky considering I didn't use it that much. I technically didn't need it in the first place." I stated firmly before making a beeline to leave the City.

◊∏Œ∆Œ∏◊

 _Location: Twilight Gap_

 _Date: 7 days after the attack_

I shoved my feet through the snow as I walked. I was exhausted after walking almost non-stop for 5 days, only stopping to eat something or sleep. Because of my hotshot marksmanship, I've managed to nail as much food as I need, and preserving the meat by making jerky out of a deer I nailed right through the eye during my first hunting session after I ate my first meal from it. Since then I haven't really needed to hunt much unless I wanted fresh meat, which by then I hunted the occasional rabbit. At the distances that I can shoot, along with my combat born reflexes, and skill as a sharpshooter, it's damn easy for me to nail a rabbit between the eyes, even with how fast they move, with either my suppressed rifle or _Ace of Spades_. And since I don't care about the head, it's fine if the head goes pop due to the high caliber rounds my weapons use. The only downside about a "clean" kill like that is that taking the rabbit, and cleaning it to get a hold of the meat is messy. "Hey Ghost?"

"Yeah?"

"Could you play my most recent music playlist please? I'd have you play it inside my helmet, but as you can tell, I'm not wearing one. I took it off so I could look directly into Ghaul's eyes."

"You got it!" Soon dubstep and edm music filled the area around us, and to be honest, I couldn't help but dance next to the fire I'd made this evening to cook the rabbit I nailed before setting up camp. I let my Ghost out and he laughed as I started doing a russian kick dance that I didn't even know I knew how do to. That's where Saladin found us.

"Thank the Light you're- what are you doing?" Saladin asked incredulously.

I froze in the middle of a kick and immediately whipped my head around to the source of the voice.

"Saladin!" I exclaimed before I blushed a deep red at Lord Saladin finding me doing a dance that I just remembered. "It's a dance I think I learned in my past life that I just remembered. Ghost, would you turn the music off please?"

"You got it. Time to get serious again?"

"We've got some time." I replied before I walked up to Saladin and hugged him tightly. "Good to see you're still alive you Old Wolf." I whispered to him.

 _Third Person POV:_

Saladin was surprised and confused to see his Young Wolf dancing a strange dance. But he was even more surprised when she hugged him tightly. In all the time that he has known her, he had never seen her hug someone, it just wasn't in her personality to. He returned the hug before releasing her and taking a step back.

"Good to see you too Young Wolf. Were you in the City when it fell?"

She nodded. "I even faced off with the bastard who led the attack. He was a Cabal to be sure, but he was different somehow. I can't really put my finger on it but it sounded like he was obsessed with the Traveler and the Light."

Saladin looked troubled by the news. "Then he is a dangerous foe if he is trying to steal the Light for him and his army." Saladin stated

"Technically he already did. The other Guardians have been helpless, I already came across about 10 others of various classes and orders, all dead."

"Then we must keep a watchful eye for any ambushes. Thankfully I still have my ship. We can regroup in the Plaguelands once we're done here. Access the cache and arm yourself Young Wolf. We have some hard times ahead."

"Yeah… about that, I kinda left the sword you gave me with Ikora, she said she was going to give it a few upgrades. It's probably destroyed along with the Tower."

"Why did you give it to _Ikora Rey_?" he asked

"She's a friend, and she said she could try to buff it up with arc or something. She's well known among some us to do things that most warlocks find impossible. That's one reason why she's part of the Vanguard."

"You do know that in all of our research into Light, the branches of Light could never be mixed together without causing a massive detonation before separating again?"

"I've heard about it, but then how do you explain this?" she then held up two fingers, one on each hand, one that sparked with arc energy, and the other that had a slight orange flicker of flame at the fingertip. They then fizzled out, the flame before the Arc energy, after a second due to her Light running out faster due to maintaining two forms of Light. Saladin noticed the timing of the two going out, but didn't comment on it. "I'm a Gunslinger, I rarely use arc, since the last time I did I ended up being extremely unstable, but I've never used both at the same time. I've never seen anyone do that either."

Saladin sighed before replying, "Every time you use different Light classes you switch between subclasses as I believe they're called now. So now, if we had the Light, you would be able to materialize an Arc blade."

She thought about that for a moment. "So you're saying that now I can't get my Golden Gun out if we get our Light back because I somehow switched subclasses?"

"For you yes. I haven't done anything with my Light in decades at least so I don't know which subclass I had before we lost it."

"That's you, since you've been around for hundreds of years, I've been a bit more active recently as you know. Besides, you use that heavy machine gun of yours, you don't need Light when you have something that belongs on a turret. I call that cheating. Snipers, scout rifles, and hand cannons take real skill to nail quick moving targets at distances."

"That's why you're a Hunter Young Wolf, that's why you're a Hunter." Saladin chuckled. He then became serious, his face set in a grim expression. A veteran warrior that had seen to much war and loss. He walked towards a wall and put his hand on a specific section. After a moment, a portion of the metal wall slid back and split down the middle before parting, revealing a vault that looked like it hadn't been used in a long time.

"I will stand guard here Artemis. Equip yourself with armour befitting an Iron Lord." he ordered.

She nodded and walked briskly into the vault's entrance before looking back and seeing Saladin put his helmet on and grab his weapon off his back.

He turned to see her standing there and said, "I'll be fine Young Wolf. Do what you need to do and meet me here when you're done."

She nodded and he closed the door, leaving her Ghost to use his flashlight feature.

"You know, if I have to use then one more time, I want you to get your own flashlight." he huffed.

She laughed as she started running down the hallway to the armory in the vault. She had a oath to keep after all, and she wasn't going to break it.

 **A/N: There it is folks! Chapter 2 of Dawn of Valour: Lightning's Dawn! Sorry for the shorter chapter but the later chapters will be longer. I think that our norm is around 5-9,000 words give or take. So what was the deal with Artemis, as Saladin called her, being able to use two forms of Light at once Hunter? (Hunter Dracon: As far as I've come up with, it may or may not be a side effect of losing her Light, a kind of glitch is what I'd call it. Don't worry, that's probably the only time it'll happen.) Thank you Hunter. Now Saladin has made an appearance! It won't be his only one for those of you who are die hard Iron Lord fans. As far as his role goes in the story, we decided that we'd make him sorta like a surrogate father figure or mentor to Artemis. (or maybe that badass cool uncle.) No, more like machine-gun slinging badass grandpa. (now i can't get that hilarious image out of my head.) What? An old man with a walker swinging around a machine gun saying, "GET OFF MY LAWN YOU YOUNG WHIPPERSNAPPERS!"? (maybe.)**

 **For those of you who are saying, "Will Chief be in the story?" don't worry. He will be, along with Cortana and Blue team. (As for someone you may know from our other stories, you can expect nothing.) Yep, this is it's own thing right now and we don't plan on changing that at all. (Although, we did get a couple of ideas for the story's future. But you'll have to find those out as you read.)**

 **See you in the next one folks.**

 **Arisentactica and Hunter Dracon over and out**


	3. Chapter 3 Teaser

**A/N: Hey guys Arisentactica here. this is a teaser that I couldn't wait to get out to you guys! The rest of the chapter is coming along so don't worry about that. It'll take longer than Chapter 2 did because we are focusing on other stories as well as this one currently. See you in the full chapter three!**

 **Arisentactica over and out.**

* * *

 _Location: Secret Asteroid Base, Reef_

 _Date: 4,560 UNSC calendar_

In an asteroid surrounded by ship wreckage, lights began to turn on after thousands of years of being offline. A bright blue orb of light appeared on a pedestal in a metal room with pods with lockers next to them lining the walls. The orb flashed and a young woman appeared. The woman was navy blue with lines of red code running down her body. She was wearing armour that was made of hard light, or at least projected that way. This was Cortana and she was awake after 2,000 years offline. She brought up a hologram displaying the situation of the base and frowned. Someone was trying to get into the base, someone that wasn't human, sangheili, or their technology. She then brought up the list of occupied pods. She stopped when she found the pod she was looking for and activated its thawing feature. She turned to a pod behind her, the same pod that she activated, and as the ice on the pod melted, she looked at a man in green armour with a gold faceplate. The Master Chief was waking up, and he wouldn't be pleased with what was going on.

"Wake up Chief, I need you. We all do." Cortana said, worried about what they awoke to and what had happened when they were asleep.


	4. Author's Notifications 1

_**Author Notifications**_

 **Hey guys, Hunter here with an important announcement. No, we are not putting the story on Hiatus. This is a notification that edits have been made to the first chapter so that it better suits what we have planned for the future. I will notify you of any further changes or if any vital decisions are made.**

 **Thank you. Hunter Dracon, Out.**


	5. Chapter 3 Teaser II

**A/N: Hey guys! Welcome to a teaser for chapter 3... again. We're putting this up for those of you who are being patient with us since this chapter is taking longer that we thought it would due to major plot changes (Arisentactica: Don't worry, they're good changes!) that caused us to rewrite some elements of previous chapters and rework the plan for chapter 3! Thank you for being patient with us and we will get chapter 3 out as soon as we can!**

 **A/N from Arisentactica: This teaser will show you who we decided to add in to make the story a bit more dynamic in a familial sort of way. See you guys in the next one and don't forget to hop over to my profile and take a peek at " _Spartan and Wolf: Realities Collide_ ", the main story in the universe/timeline that we're creating! (Hunter: I recommend it because it explains things on the UNSC side of things [Arisentactica: which is coming soon!] that might have confused some of you guys!)  
**

* * *

 _Location: European Dead Zone_

 _Third POV_

The Fallen and Red Legion were fighting over a courtyard near a church in a ruined city. They were evenly matched in numbers, but not equipment. The Red Legion was massacring the Fallen, but that's not what the Hunter in the shadows was there for. He was there to find out what the Fallen's new house was, and if it was a threat to the survivors of the City.

The fallen didn't even know they were being tracked, but the Hunter wasn't called Wraith for nothing. He followed a stray group of Fallen back to one of their cave systems. They led him right to an Archon.

"The Red Legion advances on our territory my Archon," a Vandal reported, "If we don't get reinforcements, the House of Dusk will be driven from the area."

The Archon glared at the wall for a moment before turning his gaze to the group before him.

"Do not attack them head on you fools!" he bellowed, "They will always outmatch us in brute strength, only a Light bearer may do so. Must I remind you that until we reclaim the Great Machine, we are vulnerable? Those Light bearers wipe out every unit we place within their range, no matter how many we put there."

"Yes Archon." the Vandal said, bowing his head in shame along with all the others in his group.

 _That's all I needed_ , Wraith thought before exiting the cave, not being seen by any Fallen.

When he was out of the cave he opened a comm line.

"Hawthorne." he said. "Found out what the Fallen are calling themselves these days."

He waited until he got a reply to continue.

He heard a groan. "Don't leave me hanging here Guardian." a female voice said irritatedly.

Wraith cracked smile, or as close to one as being an Exo allowed, "They call themselves the House of Dusk." he revealed, "It seems to be formed from the remnants of the other houses."

"House of Dusk huh? What will they call themselves next, House of Night?" she asked rhetorically.

"Don't let them hear you say that Hawthorne, they might just use it to spite you."

"Yeah yeah, I'm a pain in the Fallen's ass. What's new? Come on back to the Farm, I have someone here who says that she knows you."

"On my way." Wraith said before closing the channel.

"Gale, I need a pick-up." he said to his Ghost.

"On my way Guardian." his Ghost said.

Wraith crouched in a pile of rubble, waiting for his ship to arrive. He didn't have to wait long though, as a few minutes later he heard the sound of Jumpship engines. He looked up and saw his ship, Sidereal Rumba, coming into transmat range. He stood up and walked towards his ship. He didn't have to get far before he felt the transmat field.

He found himself in the cockpit of his ship, his Ghost looking at him.

"Welcome back 'One, I was _so bored_ waiting for you to finish." Gale complained.

"I didn't bring you along because you like your flashlight too much." Wraith deadpanned, "You would have exposed us and an Archon is not something that I was equipped to deal with at the time."

His Ghost seemed to pout, his lower spike coming up just a fraction and his optic projection getting bigger.

"Don't give me that look you light bulb," Wraith groused, "You know why and I'm not apologizing for it."

"Why though?" Gale whined, "We're supposed to stick together."

Wraith sighed, "I'm not explaining again, we need to get to the Farm."

"Fine." Gale huffed before spinning up the engines and inputting the coordinates to the Farm.


	6. Author's Note

**Oi! So I know a lot of you have enjoyed this story, but I gotta say it, some changes had to made. i gotta move it! it's no longer a crossover. but edits will take time.**


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